infinite game

Most games…are finite games. The game of soccer is finite—it lasts a certain amount of time and someone wins and someone loses. … We are really familiar with finite games. An infinite game is a game we don’t play to end—it’s not a game you play to win. It’s a game you play to play! So if you’re playing catch with your four-year-old, I hope it’s an infinite game—not a game you play to win by throwing the ball hard enough to make the other person quit!

As gamers, we understand the difference between finite and infinite games. We experience it all the time. But as I thought more about Seth’s comments, I realized something rather astonishing.

Life is not an infinite game. In fact, it is very much a finite game.

And I’m not even talking in purely temporal terms here. I mean this: you can win at life and you can lose at life. It’s a finite game. It ends. And at the end, we have to be comfortable with what we’ve accomplished. We need a sense that we have won.

Anyone who knows me from the Mad Adventurers Society knows that I am a pastor. That said, I don’t think the internet needs another Gamer Pastor. For that matter, the internet doesn’t need another Pastor for Gamers. Plenty of other folks are doing that quite well. So what am I hoping to accomplish with this new site, MadCleric.com?

On the Mad Adventurers Society, I’m a pastor who helps improve people’s games. Here on MadCleric.com, I want to be a gamer who helps improve people’s lives. I will certainly be open to talking about matters of faith, but that is not the only focus of the site. Here’s how I intend this to work:

Every Monday, I’ll invite you to join me here in The Cloister. Here I’ll be writing about non-gaming life issues from the perspective of a gamer.

Every Wednesday, I’ll be posting Experience Points, which will be a column wherein I respond to your questions about anything! Life, faith, politics, gaming…doesn’t matter! Though I do reserve the right to take the best gaming questions and use those to inspire my articles for…

…Tuesdays on the Mad Adventurers Society! I will certainly continue posting gaming articles over on MadAdventurers.com every Tuesday. In addition, I will continue as a moderator and frequent interlocutor over there. So don’t think I’m going to be disappearing from that place. Unless Brian wizens up and throws me out!

Well, we still have a ton to talk about, but then that’s what this site is for. But before I go, what do you think?

Is life a finite game? Can you win or lose? If so, in your opinion what are the elements of life that can make us win or lose in the process? Sound off in the comments by clicking here!